title: Myosin heavy chain-2b transcripts and isoform are expressed in human laryngeal muscles.
abstract: Three fast myosin heavy chain (MyHC) isoforms, i.e. MyHC-2a, -2x and -2b, are expressed in skeletal muscles of smaller mammals. In contrast, only MyHC-2a and -2x have been revealed in humans so far. The expression of MyHC isoforms is known to be wider in the functionally more specialized laryngeal muscles. Though mRNA transcripts of the MyHC-2b gene were found to be expressed in certain human skeletal and laryngeal muscles, the corresponding isoform has not been demonstrated in these muscles. To our knowledge, we are the first to demonstrate not only the expression of MyHC-2b transcripts using an in situ hybridization technique but also the corresponding protein, i.e. the MyHC-2b isoform, in some human laryngeal muscles by immunohistochemistry but not by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Using a set of antibodies specific to MyHC isoforms, we demonstrated that MyHC-2b was always co-expressed with the major MyHC isoforms, not only with the fast ones (MyHC-2a and -2x) but with the slow isoform (MyHC-1) as well.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia. vika.smerdu@mf.uni-lj.si
authors.forename: Vika
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Smerdu
authors.forename: Erika
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cvetko
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D005260:Female; D015870:Gene Expression; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D007821:Laryngeal Muscles / Q000378:metabolism / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018995:Myosin Heavy Chains / Q000032:analysis* / Q000235:genetics; D020033:Protein Isoforms / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D020033:Protein Isoforms; D018995:Myosin Heavy Chains